Personal life

Born and raised in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, he is of Puerto Rican ancestry. Ortiz resided in that borough with his wife Jennifer and son Clemente until 2010. At that time they moved to California, where they currently live.

Career

In 1993, John made his film debut as Al Pacino's young cousin Guajiro in Carlito's Way. He went on to appear in over 30 films including El Cantante, Take the Lead, Before Night Falls, Amistad, Ransom, and Narc. His recent film performances include those in Ridley Scott's American Gangster as Russell Crowe's partner Javy Rivera, and Michael Mann's Miami Vice as drug lord Jose Yero.

Among Ortiz's television roles, he has most recently played the lead in J.J. Abrams’ Hope Against Hope for HBO, a series regular on Denis Leary's The Job and CBS’ Clubhouse as well as the NBC cop drama Blue Blood, directed by Brett Ratner.

In 1992, Ortiz formed Latino Actors Base with 13 other Latino actors to provide themselves with a place to work and an opportunity to become a tightly knit ensemble. Today, that ensemble is known as LAByrinth Theater Company: an award winning troupe of over 100 artists from a wide range of cultural backgrounds and creative disciplines.

With LAByrinth, he most recently played the role of Clyde in the world premiere of Jack Goes Boating by Bob Glaudini (Drama Desk nomination). In 2006, he appeared as Che Guevara in the world premiere of School of the Americas by Jose Rivera, a co-production between LAByrinth Theater Company and The Public Theater. Other co-productions between LAByrinth and the Public include the role of Jesus in the world premiere of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot by Stephen Adly Guirgis, and José Solo in Guinea Pig Solo by Brett C. Leonard. Other LAByrinth Theater credits include Jesus Hopped the A Train by Stephen Adly Guirgis in London and New York (Drama Desk nomination, Drama League Award) and Where's My Money? written and directed by John Patrick Shanley.

In 2003, Ortiz made his Broadway debut in Nilo Cruz’ Pulitzer Prize winning play Anna in the Tropics. He appeared in three world premiere plays by José Rivera: The Adoration of the Old Woman at La Jolla Playhouse, Sueño at MCC Theater and The Street of the Sun at Mark Taper Forum. He was also featured in two New York premieres of Rivera's plays: References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot at the Public Theater (OBIE Award) and Cloud Tectonics at Playwrights Horizons. Ortiz also appeared in The Skin of Our Teeth and De Donde at the Public Theater; the world tours of The Merchant of Venice and The Persians directed by Peter Sellars; House Arrest at Arena Stage; and the national tour of A Few Good Men; Pentecost at Yale Repertory Theatre.

Recent projects

He appeared in the feature films Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, Pride and Glory, Public Enemies and Fast & Furious, and Jack Goes Boating, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, in January 2009. In Summer 2009, he will star on stage in Othello at the Vienna Festival. Beginning in December 2012, he appeared as Jackie in the Stephen Adly Guirgis play The Motherfucker with the Hat at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company. He also co-starred in Silver Linings Playbook.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1992-2008	Law & Order	Roberto Martinez / Victor Vargas	TV series: 2 episodes
1993	Carlito's Way	Guajiro
1995	Lotto Land	Coco
1996	Ransom	Roberto
	Sgt. Bilko	Spc. Luis Clemente
	Lush Life	Nelson 'Margarita' Marquez	TV series: 7 episodes
1997	Touched by an Angel	Nicky	TV series: 2 episodes
	Riot	Ciaco	TV movie
	Amistad	Montes
1998	Side Streets	Ramon Yanes
1999	The Last Marshal	Enrico
2000	The Opportunists	Ismael Espinoza
	Before Night Falls	Juann Abreu
2001-2002	The Job	Ruben Somarriba	TV series: 19 episodes
2001	3 A.M.	Hector
2002	Narc	Octavio Ruiz
2003	The Handler	DEA Agent	TV series: 1 episode
2004	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Officer Zermeño	TV series: 1 episode
2004-2005	Clubhouse	Carlos Tavares	TV series: 10 episodes
2006	El Cantante	Willie Colón
	Take the Lead	Mr. Temple
	Miami Vice	Jose Yero
	The Deep and Dreamless Sleep	Mervin
2007	Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem	Sheriff Eddie Morales
	American Gangster	Javier J. Rivera	Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2008	Pride and Glory	Ruben Santiago
	Blue Blood	Hector	TV movie
2009	Public Enemies	Phil D'Andrea
	Fast & Furious	Ramon Campos/Arturo Braga
	Anatomy of Hope	Tom Hernandez	TV movie
	Medium	Agent Daniel Muñoz	TV series: 1 episode
2010	Jack Goes Boating	Clyde	Also executive producer Nominated - Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Breakthrough Actor Nominated - Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male
2011-2012	Luck	Turo Escalante	TV series: 9 episodes
2012	Silver Linings Playbook	Ronnie
2013	Fast & Furious 6	Arturo Braga
2014	The Drop	Detective Torres
2015	Blackhat	Henry Pollack
2015	Togetherness	David	4 episodes
2015	Steve Jobs	Joel Pforzheimer
2016	The Finest Hours	Seaman Wallace Quirey	Post-production
2017	Kong: Skull Island		Filming

[ Source: Wikipedia ]